


Please Leave a Message After the Tone

by orphan_account



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Angst, M/M, Phone Calls, Teenagers, death mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 04:39:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6105184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard calls Frank every day, but he never answers the phone. So Gerard just leaves voice messages, hoping that Frank will hear them and somehow hoping that he will call him back, no matter what happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Leave a Message After the Tone

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again Kitty, for being my beta!

Gerard dialled the number he knew by heart and waited. He counted the number of _beep_ s it would take for the phone to change to voicemail. Exactly 10 and one that cut in half by the voice of the lady, _“The number you've been trying to reach is unavailable. Please leave a message after the tone.”_ And then there was this annoying, extra long beep, like otherwise Gerard wouldn't know when to talk.

 

He was sitting on his bed cross-legged and talking along to the voicemail lady quietly, even making a _beep_ sound with his mouth like he was trying to impersonate a robot (and failing miserably). He breathed in deeply once, twice, and then let all air leave his lungs at once, until it felt like he was suffocating.

“Hi Frank, this is Gee,” he said quickly, and after that it wasn't that difficult to talk anymore.

“I said I'd call you today, remember? Well anyway, I am now, so...” He stopped there for a while, dragging out the 'o' with a long breath.

 “How are you doing?” he continued, “I hope you're okay. I'm feeling fine. Oh, and I have to tell you what happened in school today. It was _hilarious_ , you should've seen it.”

The boy stopped there for a while, for dramatic effect as he liked to think, though that was ruined by his continuous giggling.

 

“Megan – you know, Tom's sister, the one with the red hair? – well anyway, she actually talked today! You know how quiet she normally is...

“Because Mark was hitting on her, well, more like fucking molesting her – he came up to her in the hallway and like, tried to touch her and stuff and she just slapped him. In the middle of the hallway, it was awesome! She's not too weak either, I wouldn't wanna get on her bad side to be honest. You could see her handprint on Mark's cheek afterwards! I think he even bled a bit...

 “Oh, and she shouted at him right in front of everyone! The headmaster came to look what was happening and I think he might have to leave school. But that's great, I never liked Mark anyway. Do you? No, of course you don't...

“So, Megan is our hero now. She's actually really nice when she's talking and she does so a lot more now. It's like with Mark gone – because he was immediately sent home, did I mention that? - she's a different person. Maybe she was just afraid of Mark, what do you think? We'll see...

 

“I think that was about it for today, rest of school was boring, as always. We've got lots of homework again, especially maths. As if doing this shit in school isn't enough.

“Well, I think I should actually do that now, instead of ranting about it, so...

“Bye Frankie, call me back later, yeah?”

  
  
~~~

The next day, when Gerard had come home from school, he immediately flopped down onto his bed and grabbed his phone. His fingers were dialling the numbers faster than his eyes could see and after a second of connecting he started counting.

One, two, three.... ten, ele- _“The number you've been trying to reach is unavailable. Please leave a message after the tone.”_ \- _Beeep_

 

Breathe in, breathe out... “Hi Frank, it's Gee. You weren't at school today either and it was so boring without you. Mark was here again and Megan was quiet as always. No one talked to me, but I'm used to that anyway...

 “Even lunch was boring. I had vegetable lasagne and the others had meat, I guess. I don't know, I sit alone. But don't worry, I like it that way. I actually have time to draw now, I have to show you some time, I think I've gotten better...

 “What else? Hm... we watched a movie in physics, that was quite funny – yes, even though it's science, don't judge me. You know Mr. Salton, he knows how to deliver boring subjects.

 “Oh, we started a new topic in music, you'd love it! Rock music, no stupid operas anymore! I had two lessons today and we talked about Pink Floyd and listened to parts of The Wall. And hard rock, or what school thinks it is anyway, Guns n’ Roses, AC/DC, Deep Purple, even Bon Jovi. It was nice.

 “Also, I have a biology test tomorrow, wish me luck. And maths the day after, ugh. I really don't want to study for that, but I have to now. Mum will kill me otherwise, I'm sorry.

“Bye Frankie. If you hear this message let me know, ok?”

  
  
~~~  


Gerard was running up the stairs to his room faster than anyone would've thought it possible for the slightly chubby teenager. He slammed open the door and threw his backpack into the corner before jumping onto the unmade bed and getting out his cell phone.

 

_One... two... three_ , he thought along to the dialling tone, _just hurry up_.

“The number you've been trying to reach my ass,” Gerard muttered angrily. He nearly threw his phone out of the window when it emitted this stupid loud _beep_.

“Fucking stupid fucking voicemail,” he spat before saying,

 “Hi Frankie, sorry for not calling you yesterday. I hope you're not angry at me now, but Mum took away my phone so I'd study for maths. It didn't help anyway, but now she at least can't blame me. Or you. I think I'm gonna fail maths this year...

 

“Other than that my day was okay, I guess. Megan talked to me at lunch even though Mark's still in school. She sat with me and didn't ask stupid questions like most people do. I think she's quite okay.

“And uhm... well, school was boring. No music today, no Mr. Salton either. Just tests and writing stuff down. Not even interesting stuff...

 “I'm sorry if that's boring to you, but there's just nothing exciting happing right now. I'm sorry.

“Let's see, I'll think of something... Mrs. Henderson broke her hip again, she's in hospital now. Uhm... oh! Mikey has a girlfriend now, but I'm not supposed to tell you that, so shhh. Her name's Alicia and she's in his grade. I don't know much about her to be honest. Mikey is really secretive about everything, so I guess I have to meet her myself. What do you think?

 “Remember your theory, Frank? I think you're right. Pete seems to be really angry at Alicia for no reason. Well, for no reason but... you know. It's quite sad, but cute. I think he's been like this since he's known Mikey, but I can be mistaken. I mean, I didn't even notice until now. Don't tell him I told you that though, he'll hate me. Maybe even more than Alicia.

 

“So, that's it. That's my life right now. Thrilling, isn't it? Well...

“Thanks for listening to me Frankie, I feel much better now. I was really angry before, but now I'm happy again. You're awesome.

“Talk to you tomorrow, ok? Ok, bye.”

  
  
~~~  


This day Gerard didn't call Frank the minute he came home from school. That might have something to do with the fact that it was Saturday, but also because he was forced to spend the day with his parents, so he couldn't call at all until at night. Mikey didn't have to "have a family day _"_ , because he had better grades, Gerard presumed. Or maybe because he went out of the house without having to be dragged out of it. Whatever it was, his brother was having fun while Gerard had to go to the zoo of all places.

 

When he came home he immediately dialled the same phone number as always, though a bit more hesitantly than usual.

...ten, ele- _The number you've been..._

Gerard zoned out for a bit, only the loud _beeep_ he knew all too well catching his attention again.

 “Hey Frankie, it's me again,” he sighed.

“I was't able to call you earlier because I had to go to the zoo with Mum and Dad. The zoo, can you imagine? I'm not five anymore! They treat me like I am though...

 “But it was nice, I think you'd have liked it too. We should've gone to the zoo once. Why didn't we? Everything there made me think of you, even though you never were there with me. Everything in my room makes me think of you... Even the walls, the air around me makes me think of you...

  
“Mum said I should stop calling you and I hate to say it, but I think she's right. It's been nearly a year now... So this is my last message, Frankie. I hope you can hear it up there, because I never told you down here: I love you. Goodbye.”


End file.
